What Advice Did Michael Parenteau's Uncle Give Him About Becoming an Artist?

On Geek at Sea, Michael Parenteau says he asked his uncle, a builder, whether he should go to architecture school. He liked drawing, he had a math brain, and he wanted a way to make a living, but his training was in fine art. His uncle said Parenteau would make a wonderful architect and that architecture was not what he really wanted. The money, his uncle said, would come if he stayed passionate about the work, and he would make more by keeping at what he loved than by choosing the safer field. Parenteau calls that the advice that mattered, while noting it is easier to say from a comfortable bankroll.